Alan Winnington

Alan Winnington (1916–1983) was a British journalist, war correspondent, and communist activist most famous for his coverage of the Korean War and the Chinese Communist Revolution. His most well-known and documented work was the 1950 anti-war pamphlet titled "I saw Truth in Korea" which contained photographic evidence of mass killings of civilians by the South Korean police during the Korean War. The publishing of this leaflet led to the British government debating whether to have Winnington executed for treason, though it was decided instead to make him stateless by refusing to renew his passport.[1]

Alan Winnington
Born16 March 1910 (1910-03-16)
London
Died26 November 1983 (1983-11-27) (aged 73)
East Germany
Resting placeCremated ashes were scattered across Karl Marx's grave in Highgate Cemetery
OccupationJournalist, anthropologist, war correspondent, author of children's fiction and crime thrillers
Notable work
Breakfast With Mao, Slaves of the Cool Mountains, I Saw Truth in Korea

After the Korean War, Winnington travelled to Norsu territory to record the lives of slave owners, freed slaves, and document the abolition of slavery by the Chinese Communist Party, becoming the first European to live within a Norsu community and return alive. He also lived among the Wa people and interviewed various people including Wa headhunters. His findings were published in the anthropological study The Slaves of the Cool Mountains.[2] Winnington also travelled to Tibet where he met both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, experiences which he recorded in his book titled Tibet.[3] His high reputation and support from both the Chinese Communist Party and the Lamas put Winnington in a position to obtain a greater insight into Tibetan life in the 1950s than any previous English-speaking journalist.

After 1960 he spent the remainder of his life as an author of crime-fiction and children's books in East Germany until his death in 1983. His autobiography Breakfast With Mao was published posthumously in 1986.

Early career

Although Winnington came from a working-class family, he won a scholarship to the prestigious Chigwell School in Essex.[4]

Winnington became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) British Communist Party around the year 1934. He became a branch secretary in Walthamstow after finding the party through discussions with leading British communist Harry Pollitt. After earning a press pass with the National Union of Journalists, Winnington became the press officer of the CPGB and was appointed chief editor of the Daily Worker (later renamed 'The Morning Star') for six years. In 1948 Winnington travelled to China to advise the Chinese Communist Party's information services while he accompanied the People's Liberation Army in the final stages of the Chinese Civil War.[5] Around this time he began working with Xinhua news department in Beijing.

They don't know why they're fighting
I asked every prisoner I met: "Why are you fighting in Korea?" Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: "I don't know." Some said: "It's something to do with the United Nations, they told us." A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates nearly all teen-agers said they had joined the army to "see the world", "get out of the draft" or "save some money".

Alan Winnington, I saw the Truth in Korea (1950), page 8 - Interviews with American POWs

Korean War – "I Saw Truth in Korea"

In 1950 Winnington became one of only two Western English-speaking correspondents to accompany communist forces in the Korean War, the other being Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett.[6] Within his study of war correspondents, professor of Journalism Phillip Knightley wrote that "Burchett and Winnington were a better source of news than the UN information officers,[7] and if the allied reporters did not see them they risked being beaten on stories".[8] Despite a ban on communications with communist journalists such as Burchett and Winnington, many British and American journalists ignored the ban, as their reports from the communist side were considered too valuable and important to miss and more trustworthy than official UN sources.[9] Winnington was also present with Burchett during Korean War peace talks in Kaesong, 1951.[10]

In August 1950 Winnington published a pamphlet titled I Saw Truth in Korea[11] with photographic evidence of mass graveyards containing the corpses 7,000 civilians executed by South Korean police near Taejon.[12] Embarrassed by Winnington's leaflet, the Cabinet of the British government debated whether they could charge him with "treason",[13] which if found guilty could lead to a death sentence.[14] He was also accused of being involved in the interrogation of British prisoners of war in Korea. Though Winnington met with many British POWs held by the communist forces in Korea as he interviewed them and helped to improve their conditions,[15] none of them have ever confirmed that Winnington ever took part in interrogations.

An investigation in 1999 leading to declassified US military archives later confirmed Winnington's claims that there was indeed a mass execution of civilians by South Korean forces near Taejon as was documented within I Saw Truth in Korea.[16]

Study of Chinese slavery and headunting

In 1954 Winnington's passport expired and was not renewed by the British government authorities making him virtually stateless (though it was eventually renewed in 1968).[17] Unable to return to Britain he decided to continue living in China. After hearing news of slave-owning societies in south China which had been virtually untouched by the Chinese Civil War and Communist Revolution, he set out to investigate. During his journey to investigate slave-owning societies he also travelled to the China-Burma border to interview head-hunters of the Wa people and the relatively peaceful Jingpaw (Jingpo). His findings were published in an anthropological study titled "Slaves of the Cool Mountains: Travels Among The Head-hunters and Slave Owners in South-west China".

Slavery

In Liangshan (literally meaning ‘cool mountains’) in China's southwest between Sichuan and Yunnan, there existed a complex system of slavery and nobility among the Yi people (often called Lolo, Nuosu, though Winnington called them Norsu).[18] The Yi people were split into three social classes; the nuohuo or Black Yi (nobles), qunuo or White Yi (commoners), and slaves. The White Yi were free and could own slaves and property but were bound to a lord. Other ethnic groups in Liangshan including Hans were held as slaves by the Yi. During the 1950s the Communist Party of China attempted to abolish the practice of slavery in rural China, a process which Winnington recorded in his writings. However, slavery as a way of life was so deeply entrenched within Yi society that it took years to convince the people, including many of the slaves themselves, that the system of slavery can be abolished. During his time in Liangshi, Winnington spent months interviewing Yi people from all social classes including slaves, slave owners, commoners and nobility.

Head-hunters

After months with in Liangshan, Winnington travelled to the border between China and Burma to meet the Wa people, many of whom practiced head-hunting and would keep decapitated heads in baskets in an attempt to promote crop growth. Winnington wrote that by the time he was able to interview and record the Wa, including numerous head-hunters, the practice of head-hunting was already in the process of being abolished. Winnington found that many of the Wa he interviewed viewed head-hunting as an embarrassing and shameful practice that they would be happy to see abolished.

Life in Germany

Winnington arrived in East Germany from China in 1960 to start a new life in East Berlin as the Daily Worker's East Berlin correspondent.[19] His family and children instead travelled to Britain without Winnington. He started a new family in Germany and married a woman called Ursula Wittbrodt, who later became Ursula Winnington in 1967. While in Germany he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Worker and occasionally as an advisor on Asian politics for the East German government.

He began writing fiction alongside his work as a journalist, mostly novels of the crime-fiction genre.

In 1980 Winnington wrote his autobiography Breakfast with Mao which was published posthumously in 1986 after his death in 1983.[20]

Works
  • Hints on Public Speaking. Communist Party of Great Britain, 1943.
  • I Saw Truth in Korea. People's Press Printing Society, London 1950.
  • Plain Perfidy: The Plot To Wreck Korean Peace. Britain-China Friendship Association, 1954.
  • Koje Unscreened. Britain-China Friendship Association, 1953.
  • Tibet. Lawrence and Wishart, 1957.
  • The Slaves of the Cool Mountains. Lawrence and Wishart, 1959.
  • Fairfax Millions. Robert Hale Ltd, 1974.
  • Duel in Tschungking. Das Neue Berlin, 1978.
  • The double agent. Engl. Original edition: The Double Agent, Dt. Edition: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, 1981.
  • Breakfast with Mao: Memoirs of a foreign correspondent. Lawrence and Wishart, London 1986.
  • From London to Beijing: Memories 1914 - 1960. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, 1989.

References
  1. Miller, Owen (25 June 2020). "Uncovering the Hidden History of the Korean War". Jacobin Magazine. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  2. Winnington, Alan (1962). The Slaves of the Cool Mountains: Travels Among the Head-hunters and Slave-owners in South-west China. Berlin: Seven Seas Publishers.
  3. Winnington, Alan (1957). Tibet. London: Lawrence & Wishart LTD.
  4. Cagney, Ben. "Through the cracks of history". The Morning Star. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  5. Klugmann, James; Branson, Noreen (1968). History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Volume 4. Lawrence & Wishart. p. 216. ISBN 9780853158622.
  6. "Compendium of Communist Biographies, Graham Stevenson's website". Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  7. Hoare, James; Pares, Susan (1999). Conflict in Korea: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 211. ISBN 9780874369786.
  8. Knightley, Phillip (2000). The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo. London: Prion. p. 388.
  9. Deane, Hugh (1999). The Korean War 1945-1953. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, inc. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0835126441.
  10. Manne, Robert (June 2008). "Agent of influence: Reassessing Wilfred Burchett". The Monthly. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  11. Winnington, Alan (1950). I Saw Truth in Korea. People's Press Printing Society.
  12. Shaw, Tony (1999). "The Information Research Department of the British Foreign Office and the Korean War, 1950–53". Journal of Contemporary History. 34 (2): 269. doi:10.1177/002200949903400206. JSTOR 261219. S2CID 159855506.
  13. "Correspondent Alan Winnington". New Statesman. 113: 15. 1987.
  14. Jenks, John (2006). British Propaganda and News Media in the Cold War (International Communications). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0748623140.
  15. MacKenzie, S. P. (2012). British Prisoners of the Korean War. Oxford: Oxford University Press (OUP). p. 52. ISBN 9780199656028.
  16. Cumings, Bruce (2011). North Korea: Another Country. The New Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781595587398.
  17. Buchanan, Tom (2012). East Wind: China and the British Left, 1925-1976. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 132. ISBN 9780199570331.
  18. Mackerras, Colin (2003). China's Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation. London: RoutledgeCurzon. p. 20.
  19. Berger, Stefan; Laporte, Norman (2010). Friendly Enemies: Britain and the GDR, 1949-1990. Oxford: Berghahn Books. p. 150. ISBN 9781845456979.
  20. Winnington, Alan (1986). Breakfast With Mao. Lawrence and Wishart.
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